More Than This
by cgal120
Summary: It had been snowing the day they had met, but as the snow fell on her friend's wedding day 8 years later Amelia couldn't help but start to think about what she wanted for herself and Arthur. UKxFem!US Requested by Tabaotsi


**More Than This**

It was snowing when they had first met.

Amelia could remember it well.

Her school had been closed down because of the freak snow storm cutting most of the power in the area, the roads turning to ice and the pavements to slippery to walk too far away from homes. She was 13 years old, bored and stuck at home with her older-twin-brother, Matthew. Their father, George, had been called into work earlier that day; he was a doctor in the local hospital and with the suddenness of the storm and how bad it had become in such a short space of time, accidents had been becoming more frequent and all staff were needed to help with the non-stop flow of patients being admitted.

This meant that George had left the older of the twin in charge, and Matthew was taking every opportunity to make sure that Amelia did everything he said.

Sighing heavily, Amelia closed her eyes and put her head on the cold close before her and listened as Matthew's footsteps shuffled in behind her.

"You're so lazy," she heard him say, still listening as he walked over to where she was lying across the window seat in the living room.

"Dude, I don't think anyone could drag ass as much as you do," Amelia replied, smirking up at her brother as she tilted her head to look at him. The Canadian boy scowled back at her and flipped her off. "What do you expect from me?" she asked. "You act like an ass all morning and then call me lazy when you're keeping me stuck inside this goddamned house with nothing to freaking do!"

"There's plenty to do," Matthew said, rolling his eyes at his sister. "We have bored games and art books and regular books and crosswords."

"I'm not 5 years old, Mattie!" Amelia frowned, sitting up. "I need real entertainment!"

"Just because something doesn't explode every 5 minutes or some fucking freak doesn't chase you through a dark corridor or some guy is talking about video games into a camera while he's playing them doesn't mean that it's not real entertainment!"

"I'm so done," Amelia said, getting up and walking out of the room. Matthew followed after her and watched as she put on some boots, dark blue gloves and a matching hat and her coat.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked.

"Out of here," Amelia replied, getting her keys and her phone before opening the front door.

"Amie, I'm in charge," Matthew snapped. "And I'm telling you to get back here and do as you're told!"

"And I'm telling you to go fuck yourself," Amelia replied, walking out of the house and slamming the door shut behind her before walked through the snowy streets. She rubbed her hands together to preserve her heat, looking around at the snowflakes that fell down around her. In cartoons there was always an individual pattern with in the flakes, but from what Amelia could see there were no significant patterns that she could see. Continuing to walk further through the town, she headed towards the public gardens; she knew that there was always sledding competitions going on when the snow came as the public gardens held the biggest hill in the area and when it snowed and the lake froze up near the bottom, it was always fun to see if someone could actually make it across the lake and to the island waiting for them in the centre before the ice cracked.

Amelia knew that she wouldn't be allowed to do any sledding herself, but prepared herself for standing around and watching those who were. She also knew that when she got home she was going to be seriously told off for going out into the snow when she was told not to; but that was if Matthew told on her, and in this case he'd get told off too for not stopping her and he wouldn't like that.

Finally, she got to the path that would lead her down to the bottom of the hill where she would be able to watch all the people sliding down and still be able to stay out of the way. She hurried along the path, listening to the snow crunch under her feet as she tried not to slip up and hurt herself. Eventually she got to the bottom of the hill, shifting over so she had a good view of the people rushing around to get out of the way or to get back to the top of the hill to slide down once more.

She had no idea how long she was stood watching the sledding, but she was brought back to reality when a voice cried out:

"LOOK OUT!"

With barely enough time to gasp, Amelia found herself being bowled over into the snow. She screamed slightly and landed flat on her back, feeling a body land on top of her and groan. Opening her eyes, she saw a boy with startling green eyes, blonde hair and the biggest eyebrows she'd see a couple of centimetres from her face; his eyes wide and a blush on his face. He looked a little bit older than her and scrambled to get up and help her up.

"I'm so so so sorry," he said, pulling her to her feet and looking so embarrassed and apologetic that Amelia couldn't help but let out a broken chuckle.

"It's okay," she said. "I was in the way…"

"No… No, my brothers and sisters sent me flying in the wrong direction and I flew off the sled," the boy said, shaking his head and shooting a glare over Amelia's shoulder. She looked round and saw 2 older boys and a girl laughing hysterically and another girl looking torn between beating them and laughing herself.

"I'm okay so there's no damage done," Amelia smiled, tilting her head a little to look at the boy better. "My name's Amelia. Amelia Jones."

"I'm Arthur. Arthur Kirkland."

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

8 years on, Amelia stood beside a different window, an ornate window within an expensive hotel, looking out as the snow fell like it had done the day she had met Arthur. She smiled fondly, remembering all that happened from that point on. They had hung around together, learnt more about one another, gotten together (given themselves to one another) and made new friends as they moved through school, college and now getting ready to graduate from university. However, during that time, friends that they had grown with had gotten together also:

Matthew had married his girlfriend Maria, Maria's brother Ludwig had married Feliciana, and today Feliciana's sister Lovina was marrying Antonio.

8 years of being with Arthur and once more she was able to whisper silently to the snow "always a bridesmaid… never a bride…"

"Amie, help us out please?" called Feliciana. Amelia blinked and looked away from the window, smiling as Maria and Feliciana tried to do up the lace ties on the back of Lovina's wedding dress. She went over to them, holding the top of the thick fabric together so that they could easily weave the lace through and tie it up at the bottom.

"Grazie," both Italian sister said.

"Will you three go get ready now please?" Lovina said, motioning to the girls that they were still in their slouchy clothes. "As soon as you three are done we can get our hair ready and then-"

"Should I tranq her or do you want to do it?" Maria asked, glancing at Amelia who chuckled.

"Lovi, just go sit down and try to breathe, okay?" the American said, turning her friend and sending her in the direction of a seat. "Everything is going to plan!"

Taking a few shallow breaths, Lovina nodded and went to sit down, allowing the others to go put on their red bridesmaids dresses. Help was needed from one another to do up zips, but soon the three woman were in their heals too so went back over to Lovina who looked up at them and smiled.

"This is really happening isn't it?" she asked, standing up with her friends and smiling. "You all look beautiful."

"You look the most beautiful, Sorella," Feliciana smiled.

As they called for the hairdresser to come to their prep room, Amelia moved to the side-lines again to look out of the window. She took in a deep breath and kept her emotions bottled away as she glanced back at her friends. She knew that it was okay that her and Arthur were together but not married but she couldn't help but feel like she was missing something… Looking at Maria and Feliciana, at Lovina in her wedding dress… the rings on their fingers and that shared emotion they all knew of… She knew that she was missing out on that. Glancing down at her left hand, she looked at how bare they seemed, the only jewellery she had being the necklace Arthur had bought her for her 18th birthday.

Glancing back up, Amelia smiled as she saw the guys rushing about outside for the wedding video and photos. Ludwig was walking around, trying to look comfortable but Amelia knew that he was really awkward around people (especially the guys he was with); Francis (Antonio's best man) was putting his arms around everyone and getting snow dumped on him for his awkward embraces; Antonio was grinning from ear to ear but looked rather nervous as the time ticked away; then there was Arthur throwing snow at Francis and laughing more than he normally did when he was around him.

Smiling softly, Amelia blushed a little when Arthur looked up at the window and grinned at her, waving a little before heading back over to the others when the hairdresser showed up.

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

Walking down the aisle behind Lovina, Amelia held her bouquet of red roses close to her, smiling as she listening to the murmurs and whispers about how beautiful the bride and her bridesmaids were. She stood back slightly and waited to be told to sit as Lovina's grandfather, Romulus, kissed her cheek and took his seat. She glanced to her right and smiled at Arthur as he looked over at her, blushing as he mouthed 'you look beautiful' to her.

Finally allowed to take her seat, Amelia watched with hanky in hand as the wedding truly began.

As Antonio and Lovina spoke allowed to the congregation, saying their vows and the lines from the bible, putting rings on fingers, Amelia couldn't help but imagine herself and Arthur stood there doing just as they were; her in the beautiful white dress, him placing the ring on her finger and vowing to stay with her forever. She glanced at him through the corners of her eyes, observing him as he watched the scene before them. She truly loved him with all her heart and was happy they were together, living together and getting ready to explore the wider world, but she couldn't help but think of how things would be that little bit different if they were married…

Their future together would be that little more secure; they could move out of their student flat and get a proper house together, watch their careers flourish together, have a child or two together… Oh, how she wanted that life together… She knew that almost half of marriages ended in divorce but she couldn't see that with herself and Arthur; she felt right with him, liked how it felt when he held her at night, how it felt when they were making love together…

A tear slipped down her cheek which she promptly caught on her handkerchief, forcing herself more than ever to keep her composure as Antonio lent forwards and kissed Lovina softly on the lips, the pair now man and wife.

_**OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**_

After the meal was over, the reception party kicked into swing as the DJ started to play a variety of different songs as well as requests that the many guests wanted to be played during the evening. Behind him, pictures were projected onto a large screen, all of Antonio and Lovina during the duration of their relationship; singular shots, couple shots, holiday shots, photos with family and friends.

Amelia was sat at the back of the room with a drink in her hands. She couldn't find Arthur anywhere after he had bought her the drink, so sat in the background sipping it as she watched people dance or take pictures of the happy couple as they posed under the homemade rose archway that Feliciana had made for people to walk under to get to the balcony at the back of the hall in the hotel.

"Why do you look so sad, ma cheri?"

Blinking slightly, Amelia was drawn from her thoughts when Francis pulled up a seat beside her. She shrugged a little and sipped her drink.

"No reason really," she said, looking at the glass of wine in front of her.

"Then why are you sat here drinking alone with a sad look on your face?" Francis asked, tilting his head and putting his hand on her arm. "No one looks that sad without reason."

"You're married to Arthur's older sister Scarlet right?" Amelia asked, looking at her wine.

"Oui," Francis replied, confused.

"How long did it take before you proposed to her?"

Smiling softly in understanding, Francis made Amelia look at him and shook his head a little.

"You are worried that Arthur doesn't want to marry you?" he asked, watching the slight nod of Amelia's head.

"I just… I want to marry him but… I don't want to bring the subject up in case it scares him away…"

"Trust me," Francis smiled. "He won't be scared off."

"How would you know that?"

"Arthur is a secret romanticist," Francis said. "He near enough does things to the book, so believe me; he loves you too much to let you go."

"Then where is he?"

Francis stood up and held his hand out to her, Amelia taking it in confusion and blinking as Francis led her out onto the balcony. She followed him, her eyes widening as she found the sight of candles and flowers surround a slightly nervous looking Arthur. Walking ahead of Francis now and not realising that he had left them alone, Amelia went over to Arthur, careful of the candles.

"Arthur?" she asked, looking around them. "What is all this?"

Arthur smiled at her softly and held both her hands in his before leaning forwards and kissing her softly on the lips. Amelia kissed him back for a moment until he pulled back and smiled down at her. "Amelia, we've been together for… 8 years…" he said, swallowing slightly. "And it took me a long time to build up the courage to do what I want to do tonight… When I saw you at Matthew's wedding in your bridesmaid's dress there, how beautiful you looked, I finally realised that I really did have you by my side, how much I truly loved you… I saw you walking down the aisle and… I wanted it to be me you were walking towards.

"Today, when I saw you in the window, I knew I had to do this today… Everyone helped me build up my nerves, find the right spot, the right time… All I needed was you, and that's all I'll ever need," he let go of her right hand and dropped to one knee slowly, pulling out a small box in the process, "so… Amelia Eleanor Jones, will you grant me the greatest honour of becoming my wife?"

Amelia's mouth opened slightly, tears welling up in her eyes once more. Arthur opened the ring box and revealed the most beautiful diamond ring she had ever laid eyes on before, looking up at her with a slight smile on his face.

Laughing a little, Amelia cried and grinned. "Yes," she said, letting Arthur slip the ring onto her finger before wrapping her arms around his neck as he stood up. "I will."

_**Notes**_

**And here my friends is the second giveaway request :D (there are still 6 places left to claim!)**

**This was requested by **Tabaotsi** and I really hope that this turned out well! I tried to put in some of your first request by making it the Spamano wedding so I hope this ticked both pairing boxes!**

**Also, did you see what I did with Matt and Amie in the beginning? You're art kinda inspired me there ;]**

**Here's some fun for you all though -**

**Lovina's wedding dress inspiration:**

www .hitched .co .uk / wedding-dresses / ronald-joyce/ 64008-f /

**The bridesmaid's dresses:**

www .dreamingweddingdress (.com) / images / uplode / 0wpd / red-bridesmaid-dresses-wpd 01314 .jpg

**As usual, I hope that you've enjoyed this little story and review, fave, request and all the rest :D**


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